Fairfax Media can reveal Senator Wong’s chief of staff Marcus Ganley – who is himself from New Zealand – was the ALP staffer that asked New Zealand Labour MP Chris Hipkins about the issue last week.

Mr Hipkins then asked a number of questions about citizenship in the New Zealand Parliament, however the questions did not explicitly mention Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. Mr Joyce this week confirmed he was a dual national, which could disqualify him from Parliament.

Senator Wong confirmed the intervention after her office was contacted by Fairfax Media on Tuesday.

“A staff member in my office had informal discussions with New Zealand friends about domestic political issues, including the section 44 debate,” Senator Wong confirmed.

“At no point did he make any request to raise the issue of dual citizenship in Parliament, a fact confirmed today by Mr Hipkins and the New Zealand Labour leader.”

So Hipkins did it without being asked? Why would he take that initiative on his own?

Hipkins claims not to have known what was behind the discussions with Wong’s chief of staff.

She said she and her staff had no knowledge that any questions had even been asked until after the story broke on Monday.

“New Zealand Minister Peter Dunne has since confirmed it was questions by Fairfax journalists, and not the question on notice, which led to the outing of Mr Joyce as a New Zealand citizen,” Senator Wong said.

“For the Turnbull government to then turn this into a diplomatic incident to try to distract attention from the failings of the Deputy Prime Minister is both reckless, and damaging.”

This is very messy across the ditch, with both the Government and ALP looking suspect.

And it doesn’t look flash here for Hipkins, and by association at lest for NZ Labour. Ardern has done well to front foot it and look assertive, and she has distanced herself from Hipkins.

If this gets messier here the distance between Hipkins and Parliament could grow rapidly.

Blazer

alloytoo

If we want others to respect our sovereignty then we need to show respect for their sovereignty. This is especially important for Socialist Cindy if she hopes to take over from internationally respected JK and BE.

Gezza

Gezza

It looks like they exposed themselves.
It was the second time for Larissa, apparently.
Barnaby Joyce probably should’ve exposed himself too.
And, I guess, in a way, Julie Bishop now has as well.
Wonder if any more Aussie Parliamentarians are now going to be exposing themselves